“Yeah, thanks.” He held it up for me while I poured. “Cheers.”
“Cheers.”
Now that he was there in front of me, I was desperate to know how it had gone with Cassie over the weekend. It was right on the tip of my tongue. I wanted to ask, to let him know I’d sent them, but Camilla got there first.
“Jason, we saw you over the weekend. You were having coffee with Cassie! Were you on a date with her?”
Jesus. I really need to find out who is telling my child all about girlfriends and dating.
CHAPTER21
BRAD
“No, not really,”Jason said, and I bit back a sigh of relief.
“Just meeting up like old friends. But,” he frowned, looking between the two of us, “Why didn’t you stop in and say hello?”
“Daddy didn’t want us to,” Camilla said with a frown, and I quickly cut in.
“We didn’t want to interrupt. I’m not in the habit of bursting in on my employees’ personal lives.”
I drained the spaghetti and poured it into a bowl. At the same time, the buzzer went off for the garlic bread, and I pulled it out of the oven.
“Is that so?” Jason asked, taking a sip of wine. “Because I heard you asked the employees to call you Brad.”
I kept my back turned to him while I sorted out the food, putting it on plates. I didn’t want him to see my initial reaction.
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, a few days later, we went out again, and she called you Brad when she was talking about you.”
“She was talking about me?” I asked, my hands trembling a little as I poured the sauce over the pasta.
Shut up, you idiot!
“Yeah, and when I asked, she told me you asked all the employees to call you that, said it made the environment friendlier or something.”
“I see.” So, Cassie was talking about me and slipped up. That could be a good sign. “Well, she’s right. But it’s more the employees who I work with most often. The others don’t call me Brad, but they’d be welcome to. I was a little tired of being so stuffy.”
Jason laughed. “I’m glad, Dad.”
“So, how’s your Mom?”
The rest of the night passed uneventfully, but I wished Jason would have just told me about Cassie. I mean, I suppose he thought she was just my employee, and I could have asked him, but I couldn’t afford him suspecting anything between us. It was too embarrassing, and I didn’t want to risk losing him because I was trying to date his ex. The past between us was already rife with problems, and we didn’t need any fresh ones.
He left, and as I tucked Camilla into bed, she said, “Will we see him again?”
“Would you like to?” I asked and kissed her on the top of the head.
“Yes! He’s cool. I like him. I think he’ll be a perfect big brother.”
“Oh? You’ve evaluated him then?”
“I have analyzed and evaluated,” she said, struggling a bit over the longer words.
I squeezed her tight, laughing at her. “I’m glad you like him. I do too, you know?”
“Good. Then you should invite him over again.”